Decisions, Decisions And No Zombies

I had thought that “If I Stay” was about a young woman who dies and turns into a zombie. So when Mia, a painfully shy young cello prodigy played by Chloe Grace Moretz, is in a horrible car crash early in the film, I eagerly awaited her death and resurrection, hoping it would infuse some energy into the carefully tasteful movie. That never happened, and I subsequently found out I’d been thinking of a completely different film, “Life After Beth.” While free of zombies, “If I Stay,” based on a popular young-adult novel by Gayle Forman, has its own supernatural touches. It also nicely captures that difficult moment at the end of high school when you have to make some really difficult decisions. Adam, the coolest guy in school and the front man for an up-and-coming rock band, spots Mia practicing cello in an empty classroom and is transfixed by her intensity and talent. When he leans on her locker and invites her to a cello concert, she can’t believe he’s serious. But he is, and the two begin to explore each other’s musical worlds as their relationship develops. The title turns out to have two meanings: Mia longs to go to Juilliard and may have the talent to get in. She has to decide whether to stay in Portland, OR, with Adam or go to New York and, after the accident, whether to stay in life or go toward the white light. Her body is in a coma, but ghost-Mia rises up from the scene of the accident and wanders, barefoot and invisible, through the hospital, watching as her heart monitor beeps and a kind nurse urges Mia to fight for her life. “It’s all up to you now,” she says to the comatose girl. Much of the film is told in flashback as family and friends gather for news of her fate and that of her parents and little brother, who were all in the accident with her. Mia’s parents are ex-punk-rockers, who now live a conventional and cozy life outside of Portland. Mia believes they gave up their music to be better parents when her little brother was born, until her grandfather tells her that her dad sold his drum set to buy her a cello when he realized how talented she was. (That was just one of many scenes meant to wring tears out of the audience, but somehow I used up all mine during a preview about a dolphin, and I remained dry-eyed throughout the movie.) Moretz, in a lovely and grounded performance, conveys Mia’s intense love of classical music and, through some digital filmmaking wizardry, is very convincing as an elite cellist. Jamie Blackley as Adam is earnest and has excellent rocker hair, and the large supporting cast creates a warm sense of growing up in a musical family and community, where everyone gets out their instruments after dinner and jams. There are other nice touches: Adam’s angry reaction to Mia’s decision to apply to Juilliard is believable and touching, despite some heavy-handed back story meant to explain his initial sense of abandonment. Mia’s jealousy of Adam’s female bandmate and crowd of groupies is balanced by her increasing comfort and self-confidence in the rocker scene Adam inhabits. Their love story and Mia’s dilemma about her musical future far overshadow the mounting tragedies taking place in the hospital. Nobody rises from the dead and eats brains, but no matter. Like early summer’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” this film is a credible entry into a genre just as evergreen as zombie flicks. Tragedy, teenage yearnings, growing pains and the triumph of love, well-acted and with a sad but satisfying ending. Nothing wrong with that.